Al-Ts Beginners Guide
=This is a Guide for New Players in Zy-El= The toughest parts of the Zy-El mod are right at the very beginning when you are playing for the very first time and much later on in the "Insanity Levels". This guide is aimed at new players starting out and will hopefully give you some useful hints and tips on how to make it through. Starting off in camp, make use of the chipped gem and the scroll that says "chip to flawed gem" by placing both in the cube and hitting the Transmute button. Sell the flawed gem to Akara and buy 6 keys (don't stack them) so you can transmute the rest of the scrolls that say "key to chip gem". If you are lucky you might get a chipped skull or two which sell for more than the other gems. Sell some or all of the chipped gems and go buy an appropriate weapon and other gear you feel you need from one of the vendors (Akara, Charsi, Gheed). A good strategy for any level 1 character is to buy a socketed bow and put a chipped sapphire or as many as you can spare in the sockets. Now it's time to venture out into the wilderness. On entering the Blood Moor at level 1, you will immediately notice that even killing a Quill rat is hard going. If you have a socketed bow or other socketed weapon with a chipped sapphire it will be easier. Don't attempt to fight anything other than Quill Rats until you are at least level 3, preferably 5. If it means exiting and restarting the game a few times then so be it. Once you get to level 8, go back to camp and hire a "Cold Rogue Merc" and give her as good gear as you can that you don't need for yourself. Your merc will be stronger than you for quite a while so keep her alive at all costs. If you use her properly she can help you right through to the start of Act 5 normal mode. Mercs have been toughened up and can attain a level equal to 80% of your characters level. They can now survive even in the "Insanity Levels" with the right equipment and strategy. Once you have a merc and get to about level 15 you can consider doing the Den of Evil. It isn't absolutely neccessary however, as with 10,000 levels you will be able to maximise all skills on all trees at level 3000 without doing a single "skills quest". It is entirely your choice whether you do the DoE or not but if you do be warned it is massive so expect it to take around 2-3 hours first time around to clear it. You might be able to do it faster depending on your choice of character but 2 hours is about average. I would suggest at this point, until you stop levelling or get bored of doing this, clearing the Blood Moor using "Players 1". Once clear, set "Players 127" and go around opening chests and rocks etc. Start a new game, set "Players 1" and repeat the process. After you have done this a few times you can try levelling in the Den of Evil for a few levels using various "Players X" settings, where X is a value from 1 - 127. This should get you some half-decent items in addition to a few levels. After that, lower the players setting again and try Blood Raven. You can do the Blood Raven quest earlier but for safety, especially in Hardcore play, I would suggest level 30 or above. Probably best not to go above "Players 32" maximum in any area, at least until you have been playing for a while and have a load of better items. Pick up any cube scrolls and minor poster fragments you come across as both can help immensely. Cube scrolls can be used as you find them or rerolled (3 in cube to make a new 1). You need to find 3 "matching" poster fragments, place them in the cube and transmute to get a full minor poster. Once you get your first one things will be a whole lot easier. A nice cheap alternative to a poster is a "Phoenix" runeword 5 soceted Hex charm (Thul, Ort, Ral, Amn, Tal) which gives some nice added elemental damage and other nice stats and can be used from level 40. It isn't as good as a poster but it is nice to have if you are struggling to make your first poster and I use both posters and "Phoenix" on all my characters until they can get Zy-El Artifact charms or better. Use anything you can until you complete a poster or 2 and have crafted Chance to Cast (CtC) rings. Some of the "Star Trek" runewords in charms can be useful early on. Get something to freeze monsters before Act 3 and try to get "cannot be frozen" for yourself. For Act 4 and 5 normal get either some life and mana leech or life and mana regen (it doesn't have to be insanely high as I previously thought but you will need some). Do not go near even the normal Insanity Levels (Suicide Sanctum, Wayside of Woe and Orifice to Oblivion) until you are at least level 300 and have a basic grip on how the mod plays. The reason for this is if you are too low a level, you will get the same or better levelling in other areas due to the mlvl vs clvl differences and you will die a lot more and a lot faster in the Insanity levels than you do in say "The Killing Grounds". By all means try "The Matrix" and "The Killing Grounds"...some nice levelling there before you are L300 but make sure you have crowd control skills. These crowd control methods can be a variety of skills, for example; chance to cast crafted rings swith hydra or static field or decrepify...or....any item with corpse explosion or maybe a "Summoner" Charm of Making for meat shields or any item with a charged sorc skill like frozen orb....ad-infinitum. Anything that draws monsters away from your main character or acts on a large group of monsters rather than just one or two at a time. Use all of the above plus don't make the Players x setting too high. I have tried with various classes and for the difference in levelling vs time required, there is actually no real benefit to a high players setting in Act 1 normal. At Players 1 and Players 8 my characters usually finish Act 1 at between level 50 and 60. At Players 127 they only finish at between 60 and 73. 10 to 13 levels isn't worth it for me for the time difference especially considering you can get 20/30/40 levels at the Killing Grounds and 200-300 in the Insanity Levels later on. The drops are significantly better, however, so my advice here is to''' clear an entire area then set players 127 and go around opening chests etc'., before returning to a lower players setting. If you just play at Players 127 all the time it will take several hours longer to clear an area than at a lower setting even if you are lucky enough to be twinked with really good gear. At players 1 to 8 you can reach Act 4 at level 90-100 and Act 5 anywhere between 100 and 120+. At this point you will probably have access to all the high-end skills and accumulated all the gear required to do the normal areas in Act5 (beware Frost Giants) , the hugely expanded Arreat Summit (beware Blood Witches) and even The Killing Grounds (beware...just about everything and ensure you have skills for mass crowd control), at which point your levelling should improve considerably. Reserve using Players 127 for opening chests, stashes etc., unless you are a Druid summoner or have enough good items on your character to do so. A nice tip provided by Battle_Mage at the PhrozenKeep ZyEl forum for an assassin is to use Psychic Hammer early on and put Tir runes in any spare sockets you have to replenish the mana you use. You then simply right click on your targets and most are a 1 hit kill. It's a nice low level skill that allows you to ramp up the "Players" setting to 127 once you have enough points in it. Thanks Battle_Mage. Also, consider using Charged Bolt Sentry as soon as you can invest in it. It is an awesome skill at low levels. Similarly a sorceress should invest in Charged Bolt early on for the same reasons. One I like myself, is at level 30, make a pair of "Catastrophe" (Ort, Nef) or "Catastrophic" (Ort, Nef + standard gem or any jewel) gloves. They give CtC level 5 meteor which also allows you to up the players setting. Just make sure you have replenish life on another item as this runeword has drain life -5 on it. A "Pride" (Amn, Nef, Eth) or "Prides Fall" (Amn, Nef, Eth, gmj) torso aromour at level 40 is a good choice as is "Love" (Amn, Thul, Ort, Ral, Tal) or "Love Everlasting" (Amn, Thul, Ort, Ral, Tal, gmj). The "Pride" variants give a nice boost to life, mana regeneration and defence and the "Love" variants give nice resistances, replenish life and Faster Cast Rate. Chance to Cast Rings The following crafted ring recipes can be a big help to new players. They activate on striking an enemy and I have listed the most common ones. I used a Unique jewel in each instance as they give the best % chance to cast but you can use rare or crafted jewels instead. The rings will get additional stats which vary but I am only listing the "cast" skills: '''N.B.' These are particularly effective on an amazon using multishot. Standard Gems crf ring + std amethyst + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L15 Fissure. crf ring + std diamond + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L15 Iron Maiden. crf ring + std emerald + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L15 Poison Nova. crf ring + std ruby + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L15 Firewall. crf ring + std sapphire + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L15 Frost Nova. crf ring + std skull + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L15 Life Tap. crf ring + std topaz + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L15 Static Field. Screenshot example Flawless Gems crf ring + flawless amethyst + uni jewel + elixer => 10& chance to cast L20 Twister. crf ring + flawless diamond + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L20 Confuse. crf ring + flawless emerald + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L20 Poison Nova. crf ring + flawless ruby + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L20 Meteor. crf ring + flawless sapphire + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L20 Glacial Spike. crf ring + flawless skull + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L20 Lower Resist. crf ring + flawless topaz + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L20 Nova. Screenshot example Perfect Gems crf ring + perfect amethyst + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L25 Volcano. crf ring + perfect diamond + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L25 Decrepify. crf ring + perfect emerald + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L25 Poison Nova. crf ring + perfect ruby + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L25 Hydra. crf ring + perfect sapphire + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L25 Frozen Orb. crf ring + perfect skull + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L25 Fist of The Heavens. crf ring + perfect topaz + uni jewel + elixer => 10% chance to cast L25 Chain Lightning. Screenshot example Demon Variants ' WARNING!!!' These demon variants have serious penalties on life and mana. In my tests I got up to -132 on both as well as varying drain penalties as you will see from the example screenshot below. crf ring + perfect amethyst + demon key + demon box + elixer => 13% chance to cast L30 Volcano. crf ring + perfect diamond + demon key + demon box + elixer => 13% chance to cast L30 Decrepify. crf ring + perfect emerald + demon key + demon box + elixer => 13% chance to cast L30 Poison Nova. crf ring + perfect ruby + demon key + demon box + elixer => 13% chance to cast L30 Hydra. crf ring + perfect sapphire + demon key + demon box + elixer => 13% chance to cast L30 Frozen Orb. crf ring + perfect skull + demon key + demon box + elixer => 13% chance to cast L30 Fist of The Heavens. crf ring + perfect topaz + demon key + demon box + elixer => 13% chance to cast L30 Chain Lightning. Screenshot example Crafted Belt This is another item that is agreed an absolute must by most players. Keep your Charsi quest for this one as she now gives a crafted item for the Imbue. Any type of belt will do as long as it is a normal, white belt. You aren't using it primarily for defence so don't worry if it is just a simple plated belt. Alternatively, if you have the resources, you can make a Trinity Demon Item Belt (3 Demon Keys + 3 Elixers + Any Perfect Gem + Any Belt => Trinity Demon Crafted Belt), then reroll it using one of the recipes below and this should remove all the negative stats as well as providing whichever positive stats you want on it. The general forms of the recipe are: + + + + --> new + + + + + --> new + + + + + --> new + + + + + --> new + For my examples of a belt with "life on level" and "+skills" the specific recipes are: Crafted Belt + + + + --> new Crafted Belt + "life on level". Crafted Belt + + + + --> new Crafted Belt + all skills. N.B. Add a Cube Lock if you want to retain the belts existing stats. Cube locks aren't really available to new players so my advice is use only one of the above recipes until you are further on in the mod and can do Cow runs to get Cube locks. Word and Oath Runewords These are also items that most players agree are must have items. Check the Four socket runewords and the Six socket runewords for how to make them. In particular an runeword or two can really benefit your character with the "life on level" and "+skills" stats they have. Zy-El's Requiem You may also be advised to get a "Zy-El's Requiem" Diadem but as this is a beginners guide and the general form of the recipe to make a "Zy-El Artifact" is: + x 3 + x 3 + Zy (rune33) + El (rune01) + -> ZY-EL Artifact I don't consider this to be a "beginners" item due to the high item costs of the recipe. If you do have the items to make one then by all means do so. GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY ZY-ELLING Back to Zy-El Guides Category:Guide